Thursday, July 30, 2015
Walker’s Philadelphia cheesesteak mockery
Several Philly tourists not amused with Scott Walker crashing their lunch. Overheard: “Stand in line with the rest of us.” “Who is that?” — Jenna Johnson (@wpjenna) July 28, 2015 This is silly but sometimes you just gotta stop, smell the roses, and indulge in some mockery of Scott Walker’s cheesesteak choices. It’s the standard more »
Walker’s Philadelphia cheesesteak mockery
Several Philly tourists not amused with Scott Walker crashing their lunch. Overheard: “Stand in line with the rest of us.” “Who is that?” — Jenna Johnson (@wpjenna) July 28, 2015 This is silly but sometimes you just gotta stop, smell the roses, and indulge in some mockery of Scott Walker’s cheesesteak choices. It’s the standard more »
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
WI Supreme Court “went well beyond what any court has ever held in opening the floodgates to secret money in politics”
Brendan Fischer of PRWatch was recently interviewed by Janine Jackson of Fair.org. A couple of exerpts: JJ: Well, it sounds as though the charge was that Walker actively sought to skirt finance laws and that the ruling is: Yes, he did, but it’s OK? I mean, help us to understand exactly what happened here. BF: That’s about right. more »
Excuses, Excuses
http://www.crawfordchiropractic.com/excuses-excuses/
Are you too busy to get and stay healthy?
Monday, July 27, 2015
Republican presidential candidates cluster accounts at bank with only 1 branch in McLean, Virginia
Hmmmmm. From Bloomberg: “According to the most recent Federal Election Commission filings, Chain Bridge is the sole bank serving Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign, which reported raising $11.4 million as of June 30, and his allied super-PAC, Right to Rise, which says it’s raised $103 million so far. Donald Trump’s campaign banks at Chain Bridge, and it’s more »
New York Magazine profiles 35 women who accused Cosby of sexual assault
Actor Bill Cosby speaks at the National Action Network’s 20th annual Keepers of the Dream Awards Gala in New York on April 6, 2011. Photo by Lucas Jackson/Reuters
Yesterday, in the culmination of a six-month project, New York Magazine published a profile of 35 different women who allege that comedian Bill Cosby sexually assaulted them. The article features portrait-style photographs of the women, accompanied by statements on their assault or assaults.
“I’m no longer afraid,” one of the women, Chelan Lasha, said in the piece. “I feel more powerful than him.”
The article looks at the progression of the accusations against Cosby in a timeline that begins in the sixties, when some of the first alleged assaults occurred. Popular attitudes toward rape at the time characterized it as “something violent committed by a stranger; acquaintance rape didn’t register as such, even for the women experiencing it,” according to the piece.
The chronicle continues through the ’70s and ‘80s, touching on movements like “Take Back the Night” and their role in raising popular awareness of date rape. The article examines some of the accusations brought forward in 2005, how they ended up buried and why they resurfaced following a videotaped segment from a set by comedian Hannibal Buress.
Many of the women’s stories that appear in the piece are similar; they say they met Cosby in their teens or twenties and that he offered to mentor them, but instead gave them drugs to incapacitate them without their consent before assaulting them.
Cosby has never been charged with a crime, but in a 2006 deposition obtained by The New York Times, he stated that he had obtained quaaludes for the purpose of drugging women he wanted to have sex with.
New York Magazine senior editor Noreen Malone, who wrote the article, told the NewsHour the women wanted to come forward to share their stories.
“Most of the women though wanted to have their voice shared,” Malone said. “They wanted to tell everyone that you should believe us, that we’re not lying.”
Sarah McHaney contributed reporting to this article.
The post New York Magazine profiles 35 women who accused Cosby of sexual assault appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Trump nails Walker on crumbling roads, deficit, underfunded education, Common Core flip-flops
Times are strange when you’re pleased to hear from Donald Trump, eh? What’s really wild is not only do I enjoy hearing Trump slam Walker, I have to admit that Trump is essentially telling the truth about the state of affairs in Wisconsin and about Walker’s flip-flops on Common Core. Donald Trump says he wasn’t more »
Wisconsinite dissents in chalk: “WEASEL WHORE HOUSE”
The dissent: The chalker, who prefers to remain anonymous, gave me permission to upload this photo here. If you have questions about the use of the word “whore” in Wisconsin see this. You just finished reading Wisconsinite dissents in chalk: "WEASEL WHORE HOUSE"! Consider leaving a comment!Visit bluecheddar.net for more news and opinion. You can more »
Saturday, July 25, 2015
Get The ADT Pulse App Latest Update Version 7.0.0
On July 21st, ADT rolled out the long awaited ADT Pulse App 7.0.0 for Apple and Android devices. The big improvement is the integration of voice control into the standard pulse app. No more selecting one app for manual control and another app for voice control. With 300 apps a day hitting the market, having 2 apps for your security system can seem like an indulgent burden for controlling your home security system. This app resolves that issue and so much more.
“Scott Walker is not Joe McCarthy, but his technique is similar”
This is a bit from an opinion piece by Dana Milbank in the Washington Post: “Scott Walker is not Joe McCarthy, but his technique is similar: He suggests that the nation’s ills can be cured by fighting labor unions (foremost among the “big government special interests” hurting America), even though unions represent just 11 percent more »
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
One of the shady recipients of Walker’s WEDC welfare faces criminal investigation (finally)
As blogger lufthase puts it, “If WEDC had done a simple search on Green Box chairman Ronald Van Den Heuvel before making this loan, they’d have found at least 8 six-figure judgements from 2008 to 2011 against him or the many, many companies he has registered at the same address as Green Box.” Basically, Scott more »
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Round-up of Wisco news: Walker puzzled by gayness, Walker v. G.A.B., 20 wk. abortion ban, MORE
These seem like the key WI political stories from the last 3 or 4 days. If I missed something, please do leave it in a comment. WALKER AND GAYNESS This is how conservative blog NewsMax frames it: Gay marriage opponent and Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker said in a CNN interview broadcast on Sunday he more »
Monday, July 20, 2015
“Governor Walker, why are you trying to break my family apart?” – Leslie Flores
Because a new poll shows that Donald Trump polls nationally at 24% among Republican registered voters while Walker polls 13% I have to admit that I have no idea whether Walker’s comments to this family have an impact positive or negative within the Republican Party base. This guy’s tweet sums up their bigoted wingnuttery: "Obama's more »
Sunday, July 19, 2015
Iowa is smelling the BS around Walker’s Kohls speech
Iowans are learning that Scott Walker doled out over $68 million to Kohls. It’s undermining his “brown bag government” schtick. Excellent! If they keep pulling at loose threads on his stories they’re going to turn up tales of unaccountable millions in corporate welfare he gave out through WEDC. Des Moines Register has the story: Some more »
Friday, July 17, 2015
Looks like my governor is cruisin’ through Iowa in a big gay RV
I sent this to George Takei Dear George: This is a photo of Scott Walker’s new RV. I must say, all I can see is an equal sign with those two red bars on the right. And when I see a red equal sign I am reminded of the red equal sign which you encouraged more »
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Appeal of John Doe decision to SCOTUS unlikely according to Hasen
This is from Hasen’s “Analysis of Wisconsin John Doe Ruling: Bad News for Campaign Finance Laws” U.S. Supreme Court review? The dissent notes that under the U.S. Supreme Court’s Caperton decision, the failure to recuse in this case could be a due process violation. At least theoretically, that’s an issue which could go to the more »
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
How to Fire an Employee Without Being Sued
Firing an employee is never pleasant, even if you think he or she deserves it. Bringing a wrongful termination lawsuit can only add to the unpleasantness. No doubt you'd rather be focusing on your business than going to court....
5 Things You Need to Know About Checking Into a Hospital
When checking into a hospital, legal concerns are often the last things on your mind. But as it turns out, there are quite a few legal questions you should be aware of if you’re checking into a hospital. Here’s what...
Firefighters prosecuted for hazings that occurred in the 80s & 90s
Two senior fire officers in the U.K. are facing four counts of indecent assault and 10 counts of false imprisonment for firehouse hazing incidents from 1988 to 1997. The victims were recruits assigned to Green Watch at Tilbury station in Essex.
Maybe this crew was the inspiration for the group of Texas firefighters and chief officers arrested for in an ugly hazing incident earlier this year. In both firehouses there were allegations sausages were used to violate the victims sexually.
Firefighters have claimed they were tied to a stretcher and hung up in the air, locked in a small room which was filled with water and then urinated upon through a skylight window, and bent over a gym horse and having a sausage pushed up their bottom.
One firefighter claims he was clingfilmed to a lamppost and had ice blocks attached to his private parts, the jury was told.
In another incident a man claims he was taken outside and had a muscle relaxant rubbed over his private parts.
Painting a Real-World Picture for Women’s Careers in STEM
“These young women need visible, tangible role models. They need examples of strong women thriving in technical fields – and not just one or two, they need dozens, hundreds. They need to hear our stories of success, of failure and of not giving up. We want to show them that it’s worth it–and that they belong. That’s why we organize events like these at Uber. If we can convince even just one young woman to pursue a career in STEM, then LadyEng will have achieved its goal.”
Martha, Software Engineer at Uber, Founding Member of LadyEng, Uber’s women-led engineering group
For Martha, the path to a career in tech wasn’t always easy. Growing up in Alabama, a career in technology never even seemed like a possibility: no one from her family or public school system believed that a career in software engineering could be an option for her future. That’s why Martha was inspired to form Uber’s women-led engineering group, LadyEng, and seek out opportunities to give back to young women.
Girls Who Code is an educational organization that trains and provides career advice for young women with an interest in technology. They rely on mentors from groups like Uber’s LadyEng to paint a real-world picture of women’s careers in STEM.
Last week, Girls Who Code brought a group of students to Uber’s headquarters in San Francisco to participate in a mobile engineering workshop with Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, Uber CTO Thuan Pham, members of LadyEng, and a group of leaders from Uber’s operations and marketing teams. The workshop at Uber is part of a 7-week summer immersion program that focuses on topics like robotics, animation and data structures.
“Girls Who Code not only seeks to give girls the technical skills they’ll need to pursue 21st century opportunities, but expose them to role models in the field. That’s why we’re so excited to partner with a tech company like Uber. Meeting tech executives and professional women’s groups like Uber’s LadyEng not only serves as a learning opportunity, but helps girls visualize their own career as an engineer, developer, or entrepreneur.”
Reshma Saujani, Founder and CEO, Girls Who Code
“One of my favorite things I get to do these days is meet with young entrepreneurs and programmers. Meeting with the young women from Girls Who Code reinforced for me the importance of mentorship and diversity in building our next generation of talented engineers and entrepreneurs.”
Travis Kalanick, Uber CEO
During the workshop, Travis and Thuan spent time with the participants and took part in a Q&A session. Along with members of the LadyEng team, they spoke to the students about the importance of building something that comes from the heart, and advised them to never be afraid to fail, as it’s not about instant success, but the journey along the way.
“Engineering has been a male-dominated profession for far too long, and it is critically important that we educate, invest in, and recruit women and girls with an interest in technical professions. Mentorship and exposure to real world experiences can truly transform a talent or interest into a lifelong career in engineering or tech. We look forward to continuing to welcome organizations like Girls Who Code behind the scenes at Uber as part of our continued commitment to fostering diversity in our engineering department.”
Thuan Pham, CTO & Women’s Diversity Employee Resources Group (ERG) Co-Executive Sponsor, Uber
Paving Projects Can Also Be Street Safety Projects
Transportation departments tend to separate street resurfacings from street safety projects. In New York City, for example, advocates are pushing DOT to coordinate its paving and safety teams to better facilitate low-cost improvements for walking and biking.
Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland
Paving and safety projects shouldn’t be in competition for resources, writes Jonathan Maus at BikePortland. Maus says his city’s transportation planners are adding bike and pedestrian infrastructure after putting down fresh asphalt.
During the push for the Our Streets funding measure, the Portland Bureau of Transportation used percentages and pie charts to split these two priorities into categories. With such clear lines in the sand it’s no wonder that the community (and the media) latch on and start shouting about which one deserves more (I admit it, I’ve been guilty of doing this myself in the past).
It doesn’t have to be this way. The truth is, paving/maintenance projects can also be safety projects that improve bicycling and walking. And guess what? PBOT gets it.
Maus points to several examples of bike lanes and crosswalks striped in conjunction with a repaving. He writes: “While these bicycle access improvements are still just paint and not the true, physically protected bikeways many Portlanders are yearning for, at least PBOT is claiming space and moving in the right direction.”
Elsewhere on the Network: Streets.mn on why crosswalks should be raised to meet the sidewalk, Urban Milwaukee has a streetcar update, and the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia reports that SEPTA may expand its bike parking plans.
Text Neck Is Real
http://www.crawfordchiropractic.com/text-neck-is-real/Is technology convenient or is it a pain in your neck?
Where to Find Up-To-Date Legal Forms
While we recommend that you have an attorney help you with legal filings, we do recognize that there are times when you may be able to complete some legal forms yourself. For most motions, complaints, and pleadings, you no...
Monday, July 13, 2015
Live video: Fire & explosions at Missouri oil company
Raw video above from Robert Knott taken at a fire with explosions at the Santie Oil Company in Sikeston, Missouri today (Monday). Live video from KFSV-TV is here when available. Additional live video from KMOV-TV.
Highway 60 in Sikeston is shut down after several explosions caught the Santie Oil building on fire. Several explosions caught the Santie Oil building on fire in Sikeston.
The entire building is on fire, according to the Sikeston Department of Public Safety.
A 30,000 gallon tank that was at least half full is on other side of building.
The Sikeston Department of Public Safety says there’s a vessel containing approximately 15,000 gallons of propane at the facility on Larcel Drive.
Authorities are urging everyone to stay at least one-half mile away from the location as a precaution.
The Missouri Department of Transportation says both directions of US 60 west of Sikeston are currently closed. Interstate 55 is open.
Fire near our building in Sikeston. Gas and propane company. Many evacuated. pic.twitter.com/mfY15zIHrB
— Glen Cantrell (@PastorGlenCan) July 13, 2015
.@SikestonDPS asking residents to stay away from large fire at Santie Oil http://t.co/e5QJM7W1QC pic.twitter.com/dLxk1YAQki
— WSIL News (@WSILNews) July 13, 2015
Saturday, July 11, 2015
GOP primary candidates compete for anti-abortion vote
Thousands participate in the anti-abortion March for Life past the U.S. Capitol and Supreme Court, January 22, 2015. GOP presidential hopefuls convened in New Orleans Friday to try to distinguish their anti-abortion credentials. Photo by Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
NEW ORLEANS — Trying to distinguish themselves in front of an important group of social conservative activists, Republican White House hopefuls on Friday used the National Right to Life Convention to share personal stories and detail the abortion restrictions they’ve helped write into law.
The question now is whether the scramble helps or hinders an anti-abortion movement seeking unity as Republicans look to win back the presidency next November.
National Right to Life Political Director Karen Cross urged the assembly to “make a decision right now that the issue of life trumps all else.”
“There is no such thing as the perfect candidate,” she warned.
Carol Tobias, the group’s president, argued in an interview that President Barack Obama benefited in both of his national victories from social conservatives who didn’t back John McCain in 2008 or Mitt Romney in 2012.
“The quickest way to defeat a pro-lifer,” Tobias said, “is to fall in love with your candidate and then get your feelings hurt when they don’t win the nomination.”
The candidates gave repeated nods to those sentiments, praising each other and hammering Democratic favorite Hillary Rodham Clinton, who supports abortion rights. Still, they spent most of their energy asserting their own conservative supremacy on the issue.
Santorum boasted of how he sponsored the federal law that bans certain late-term abortion procedures after initially soft-pedaling his abortion stance because of Pennsylvania’s closely divided electorate.
“You know me; there’s no quit in this dog,” he said. “Go ahead and nominate somebody who’s just going to go along. Then try to convince yourself you’ll make a difference.”
Rick Perry predicted the next president will nominate as many as four Supreme Court justices – who could presumably overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationally. “If I have the opportunity to put justices on the Supreme Court, they will not be squishy,” the former Texas governor said.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio explained his abortion opposition as “inseparable from the effort to reclaim the American dream … for every child,” and recalled abortion restrictions he helped pass as speaker of the Florida House of Representatives.
Jeb Bush, whose tenure as Florida governor overlapped Rubio’s speakership, mentioned some of the same laws in a video presentation. He did not physically attend the convention.
Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, has never held elected office, but he blasted abortion providers as “evil.”
Tobias said her group doesn’t wade into primaries in part because it’s hard to find meaningful distinctions between candidates, though she acknowledged the campaigns will find them.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie supported abortion rights earlier in his career, something he generally avoids talking about now.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker celebrated passage of a new state ban on most abortions beyond the 20th week of pregnancy. Yet late in his 2014 re-election campaign, he aired an ad in which he affirmed his abortion opposition while emphasizing that Wisconsin law “leaves the final decision to a woman and her doctor.”
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham has sponsored a ban on abortions after 20 weeks. But some conservatives blast him for voting to confirm Obama’s two Supreme Court nominees.
Tobias said those details sometimes matter to abortion opponents, but she maintained that nitpicking is counter-productive.
For many anti-abortion voters, she said, choosing a primary candidate is about “trust” and “personal feel” rather than policy. The candidates’ approaches here suggest they understand that.
Rubio and Perry talked about seeing their children on ultrasounds during pregnancy. Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, talked about how he gravitated to pediatric surgery because of how much he values children.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal talked Thursday night about having to defend his anti-abortion stance in his interviews for medical school.
Santorum tells the story of doctors advising that his daughter, Bella, who suffers from a rare genetic disorder, would not have a good quality of life and could die as an infant. “There is no better way to preach the gospel of life,” Santorum said Friday, than to have school-age Bella “in the White House.”
Public opinion, meanwhile, remains divided.
An Associated Press-GfK poll conducted in January and February found that 51 percent of Americans think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 45 percent think it should be illegal in most or all cases.
At NARAL Pro-Choice America, a leading abortion rights advocacy group, Sasha Bruce said that means Republicans “are fighting over a slice of the minority,” putting them at a disadvantage in November.
Tobias countered that among voters who rank abortion as a key issue in deciding on a candidate, “we win a majority of them.” Her movement’s job, she said, is to increase the share of voters who cast their vote “based on the life issue. If we do, we win.”
Bruce said her organization is focused on educating general election voters about the success abortion opponents have had limiting abortion access through state-by-state restrictions. “They aren’t overturning Roe v. Wade, but they’re just chipping away,” she said.
The post GOP primary candidates compete for anti-abortion vote appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
Friday, July 10, 2015
Greece Lawmakers Approves Bailout Proposal
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece's parliament backed the government's reform plan containing austerity measures to win a third bailout early Saturday, but with the government suffering significant losses from dissenting lawmakers.
The motion, which sought to authorize the government to use the proposal as a basis for negotiation with international creditors during the weekend, passed with 251 votes in favor, 32 against and 8 voting 'present' — a form of abstention — in the 300-member parliament.
Those who voted 'present' or were absent, as well as two of those who voted against, were members of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' left-wing Syriza party — raising questions about the stability of his government.
The dissenters included two ministers — Panagiotis Lafazanis who holds the energy portfolio and Dimitris Stratoulis who holds the social security portfolio — and prominent party member and Parliament Speaker Zoe Konstantopoulou.
"I support the government but I don't support an austerity program of neoliberal deregulation and privatizations which ... would prolong the vicious circle of recession, poverty and misery," Lafazanis said in a statement released to the press explaining his "radical and categorical" objection to the proposal.
Former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, who resigned this week, was absent for family reasons, saying on Twitter he was spending the weekend with his daughter who was visiting from Australia. Although he sent a letter saying he would have voted in favor had he been present, it could not be counted among the 'yes' votes under parliamentary rules.
All opposition parties except the Nazi-inspired Golden Dawn and the Communist Party voted in favor.
The proposed measures, including tax hikes and cuts in pension spending, are certain to inflict more pain on a Greek public who just days ago voted overwhelmingly against a similar plan.
But the new proposal, if approved by Greece's international creditors, will provide longer-term financial support for a nation that has endured six years of recession.
Without a deal, Greece faces the immediate prospect of crashing out of Europe's joint currency, the euro. It would be the first nation to do so.
If the proposal is approved, Greece would get a three-year loan package worth nearly $60 billion (53.5 billion euros) as well as some form of debt relief. That is far more than the 7.2 billion euros left over from Greece's previous bailout that had been at stake in the country's five-month negotiations until last month.
Speaking earlier in the debate that began just before midnight Friday, Tsipras acknowledged the reforms his government has proposed were harsh and include measures far from his party's election pledges, but insisted they were Greece's best chance to emerge from its financial crisis.
Tsipras said his government had made mistakes during his six-month tenure but said he had negotiated as hard as he could.
"There is no doubt that for six months now we've been in a war," he said, adding that his government had fought "difficult battles" and had lost some of them.
"Now I have the feeling we've reached the boundary line. From here on there is a minefield, and I don't have the right to dismiss this or hide it from the Greek people," he said.
But he insisted the latest proposal contains measures that would help the economy and, if approved by Greece's creditors, would unlock sufficient financing for the country to emerge from its protracted crisis and see its massive debt tackled.
Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, who heads the government's junior coalition member Independent Greeks, said he was advocating a vote in favor of the proposal even though it goes against his party's principles. The party holds 13 seats in the 300-member parliament.
"I want to state clearly, I am not afraid of Grexit," he said, referring to the possibility of Greece leaving the euro. "I am afraid of one thing: national division and civil war."
He said he feared failure to get a deal with creditors would eventually lead to civil strife.
Greece's latest proposal was sent to rescue creditors who were to meet this weekend to decide whether to approve it. Eurozone finance ministers meet Saturday afternoon, followed by a summit of the 28-nation European Union set for Sunday.
The country has relied on bailout funding since losing access to financing from bond markets in 2010.
The new measures overturn many of the election promises of Tsipras' left-wing Syriza party, which had vowed to overturn bailout austerity, and come less than a week after 61 percent of voters opposed similar reforms, proposed by creditors, in last Sunday's referendum.
The coalition government has 162 and pledged backing from a large section of opposition lawmakers.
Greece's major creditors — the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and other eurozone nations — were already fine-combing through the proposals before sending them to the other 18 eurozone finance ministers Saturday.
French President Francois Hollande described the measures as "serious and credible," though Germany refused to be drawn on their merits. France's Socialist government has been among Greece's few allies in the eurozone during the past months of tough negotiations, with Germany taking a far harder line.
Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister who chairs the meetings of the eurozone finance ministers known as the eurogroup, said the proposals were "extensive" but would not say whether he considered them sufficient.
Meanwhile, banks remained closed since the start of last week and cash withdrawals were restricted to 60 euros ($67) per day. Although credit and debit cards work within the country, many businesses refuse to accept them, insisting on cash-only payments. All money transfers abroad, including bill payments, were banned without special permission.
___
Associated Press writers Angela Charlton in Paris and Mike Corder in the The Hague, Netherlands, contributed to this report.
___
Follow Derek Gatopoulos at http://www.twitter.com/dgatopoulos and Elena Becatoros at http://www.twitter.com/ElenaBec
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Judge Sends Kids to Juvenile Center for Not Visiting Dad
Divorce and custody issues are never easy, and things can get even harder if kids refuse to obey a custody order. So what can you do if children refuse to see one of their parents, as ordered by the...
Thursday, July 9, 2015
Residential Parking Reforms Should Benefit All of Minneapolis
In June Streets.mn reported that Minneapolis might drop parking minimums for residential developments near transit stations. By doing so, the city would promote walkable development and reduce housing costs.
All of Minneapolis would benefit from parking reforms that spur walkable development. Image via Streets.mn
However, City Council President Barb Johnson wants to exclude neighborhoods in north Minneapolis from the parking reforms. Writing at Streets.mn, affordable housing expert Kris Brogan says this would be a “big mistake.”
This move to reduce parking requirements in multi-family development along transit corridors is a good idea–not just for portions of the City, but for the City as a whole.
North Minneapolis, particularly Camden, needs multi-family development. Being exempt from the parking ordinance — increasing development costs by hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars — will keep developers from considering Camden.
Creating housing opportunities along transit corridors will give residents more options for housing and more options to use alternative transportation modes. Let’s be very clear here: If we don’t create more multi-family housing options with greater density, increasing the population along our transit corridors, we will not get those improved transportation options.
Elsewhere on the Network today: Greater Greater Washington looks at road projects Maryland Governor Larry Hogan plans to build with funds that were supposed to expand transit in Baltimore and DC; Human Transit says LA might beef up bus service in some parts of the city, but will have to do so at the expense of lines with lower ridership; and Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space reports on a misguided campaign by DC pedestrian advocates to remove unmarked crosswalks.
Munis Face Little Spillover from Puerto Rico’s Woes, So Far
Even as Puerto Rico moves closer to a debt default and its bonds trade near record lows, the repercussions for the broader municipal market have been muted. For example, iShares AMT-free Muni Bond (MUB) only fell slightly the day after it was reported June 28 that Puerto Rico’s governor said it’s debts are “not payable.” It has [...]
Transportation At Your Fingertips
This week marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the National Federation of the Blind. In support of our partnership with the NFB, Uber’s accessibility team is participating in the national conference in Orlando for the second year in a row to provide educational product demonstrations and gather feedback from the blind and low vision community.
“Uber is a perfect example of how an innovative application of technology, that incorporates accessibility for all users, can increase service options for blind people. We applaud Uber’s commitment to continued innovation that increase mobility choices across the world. We are excited to partner with Uber to implement creative solutions and welcome Uber to our annual convention to incorporate feedback from our community.”
Mark A. Riccobono, President, National Federation of the Blind
In honor of their 75th anniversary, we sat down with a group of inspiring riders who are visually impaired to learn about their experiences with the Uber platform.
Meet Uber riders Christy, Emrah, and Tessa
Christy’s five-year-old daughter Emeline lights up her life. The pair are almost always together, traveling around their home state of Michigan, heading to gymnastics classes, and sometimes embarking on long, adventurous walks to the supermarket.
Christy glows when she speaks about her daughter, but motherhood has presented a unique set of challenges for her. Five years ago, Christy became visually impaired. Typical parental duties, like running errands and going to medical appointments, suddenly felt close to impossible. She could no longer drive, and in a neighborhood where cars are a necessity, she felt that the “fierce” independence she once maintained was eluding her.
When Uber arrived in Michigan, Christy and her daughter became some of the very first riders. Uber has allowed her to rely less and less on family members for transportation needs. She feels empowered to travel independently with her daughter.
And there are many more riders like Christy. Tessa, in Tampa Bay, uses Uber every week to run errands with her service dog, and says that the technology has allowed her to be “spontaneous.”
Emrah, who is blind, once requested an Uber at a busy intersection in Chicago. He knew that ridesharing technology offered unique opportunities for riders with disabilities—but he didn’t know it did the same for drivers. When Emrah’s car pulled up, he realized his driver was deaf.
“I feel absolutely amazed and grateful to Uber and to this unique experience,” Emrah said. “What a pair! A blind person and a deaf person doing business.”
Many driver-partners go above and beyond for their passengers—like the time Tessa’s driver helped her carry groceries to her front door, or the time that Christy’s driver mailed her daughter’s lost doll shoe back to their home. For many in the blind and low vision community, trying a new mobility option can be difficult. But Christy encourages people who are reluctant to travel independently to try using Uber. “Take that first step,” she said. “It’s worth it.”
Uber is committed to continuing to build solutions that support everyone’s ability to easily move around their communities. We are constantly innovating our technology to increase mobility choices in all cities where we operate.
Read more about our commitment to innovation for the blind and low vision community here.
Wedding Discrimination After the Same-Sex Marriage Ruling
Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that same-sex couples have the right to be married, many are wondering what that will mean for small businesses. The big question being whether businesses can discriminate against same-sex couples in terms...
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Learn From Whole Foods: Don't Overcharge Customers
How much do you charge your customers? Be careful. Don't make Whole Foods' mistake and overcharge or you might run into legal trouble. Whole Foods is currently in damage control mode after it was investigated by several cities for...
Video from Chicago house fire
Video from James Nelson of a house fire early Monday at 8548 South Buffalo Avenue in Chicago, Illinois.
Shark Week: What Makes Your Lawyer a Shark?
As we noted yesterday, lawyers have long been associated with sharks. From Herman Melville to CBS, referring to attorneys as sharks has a long and storied tradition. In honor of shark week, let's take a look at how you can...
Charleston activists to visit Congress to push for gun control legislation
A relative of a Charleston shooting victim along with other gun control activists will be on Capitol Hill Wednesday. Photo by Jim Young/Reuters
WASHINGTON — A relative of one victim of the mass church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, and other activists from the city are coming to the Capitol on Wednesday to try doing what others have failed to achieve before: Pressure lawmakers to approve gun control legislation.
The visitors are planning a news conference with lawmakers and leaders of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence at which they will press Congress to vote on legislation expanding required background checks for firearms buyers at gun shows and online.
Their chances of success seem bleak. Similar bills have gone nowhere in Congress, despite repeated lobbying by victims’ families from the 2012 slaying of 26 children and educators in Newtown, Connecticut, and by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., who was badly wounded in a 2011 shooting that killed six.
So far, the Charleston killings have prompted little serious activity in Congress related to firearms restrictions.
The group from Charleston is coming exactly three weeks after Dylann Storm Roof allegedly murdered nine black parishioners at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church. Roof, who is white, faces nine counts of murder and other charges.
The visitors will include Andre Duncan of Charleston, nephew of Myra Thompson, 59, a member of a bible study group that was meeting at the historically black church when the nine were slain.
The shooting and pictures of Roof with Confederate flags have prompted some lawmakers to move toward restricting public displays of the banner in Southern states.
On Tuesday, the South Carolina Senate voted to remove the Confederate flag from a pole in front of the Statehouse. The measure still must be approved by the state House.
The city council of Mobile, Alabama, voted Tuesday to remove the Confederate banner from the city’s official seal.
In 2013, just months after the Newtown killings, the Democratic-run Senate fell short of approving a bill expanding background checks and imposing other gun curbs. The Republican-run House never took up such legislation.
The post Charleston activists to visit Congress to push for gun control legislation appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
Big Day for mREITS as Sector Gets Upgrade
Shares of real estate investment trusts that invest in mortgages and mortgage-backed securities had a banner day Tuesday. The iShares Mortgage Real Estate Capped ETF (REM) was up 2%. Many residential mREITs gained more than 3%. Thanks go mainly to Wells Fargo analysts, who upgraded the sector. It may have also helped that the Greek [...]
Education Department Dismisses Complaint From Asian Americans' Group Against Harvard
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Education Department on Tuesday dismissed a complaint against Harvard University by some Asian-American groups who say the university uses racial quotas to keep out high-scoring Asians.
The complaint was filed in May with the department's civil rights office by more than 60 Chinese, Indian, Korean and Pakistani groups. Education officials said the complaint was dismissed because similar concerns were the focus of a federal lawsuit.
The complaining groups said they were "very disappointed."
Harvard and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were sued last year by some rejected applicants who want affirmative action policies banned. The Harvard lawsuit also contends the university specifically limits the number of Asian-Americans it admits.
Harvard said its admission policies have been found to be "fully compliant with federal law" and said it "has demonstrated a strong record of recruiting and admitting Asian-American students."
The university said Tuesday that the percentage of Asian-American students admitted to Harvard College has risen from 17.6 percent to 21 percent over the past decade.
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Under health law, women save hundreds each year on birth control, study finds
Most health insurance plans began offering free birth control on Aug. 1, 2012, or Jan. 1, 2013. Photo by Getty Images
Women are saving a lot of money as a result of a health law requirement that insurance cover most forms of prescription contraceptives with no additional out-of-pocket costs, according to a study released Tuesday. But the amount of those savings and the speed with which those savings occurred surprised researchers.
The study, in the July issue of the policy journal Health Affairs, found that the average birth control pill user saved $255 in the year after the requirement took effect. The average user of an intrauterine device (IUD) saved $248. Those savings represented a significant percentage of average out-of-pocket costs.
“These are healthy women and this on average is their No. 1 need from the health care system,” said Nora Becker, an MD-PhD candidate at the University of Pennsylvania and lead author of the study. “On average, these women were spending about 30 to 44 percent of their total out of pocket (health) spending just on birth control.”
The study looked at out-of-pocket spending from nearly 800,000 women between the ages of 13 and 45 from January 2008 through June 2013. For most plans, the requirement began Aug. 1, 2012, or Jan. 1, 2013. So-called “grandfathered” health plans, those that have not substantially changed their benefits since the health law was passed in 2010, are exempt from the mandate, as are a small subset of religious-based plans.
Becker said that while making birth control substantially cheaper may not increase the number of women who use it, the new requirements could well shift the type of birth control they use to longer-acting, more effective methods like the IUD. “If prior to the ACA a woman was facing $10 to $30 a month for the pill but hundreds of dollars upfront for an IUD and now both are free, we might see a different choice,” she said.
Researchers also found that while out-of-pocket spending dropped dramatically for most types of prescription contraceptive methods — “the majority of women were paying nothing by June 2013” –spending barely budged for the vaginal ring or hormonal patch.
That could be because under the original rules, many insurers declined to make the ring or patch free, since, like pills, they are essentially hormone delivery methods. Earlier this year, the Obama administration issued a clarification saying that while insurers do not have to offer every brand of every method, they do have to cover at least one product in each category, including rings and patches.
Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan health policy research and communication organization not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
The post Under health law, women save hundreds each year on birth control, study finds appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
Hillary Clinton Piles On San Francisco Officials, Putting Sanctuary Cities Under Even More Heat
WASHINGTON -- After a deadly shooting in San Francisco, allegedly by a man who had been deported five times, lawmakers are calling on the county to drop its policy against cooperating with immigration enforcement.
Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton became the most high-profile Democrat to wade into the debate on Tuesday, telling CNN that San Francisco should have worked with agents at Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"The city made a mistake, not to deport someone that the federal government strongly felt should be deported," she said in an interview. "So I have absolutely no support for a city that ignores the strong evidence that should be acted on."
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), meanwhile, sent a letter on Tuesday to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee urging him to cooperate with ICE, implying the county's failure to do so allowed for the shooting of 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle, allegedly at the hands of a previously deported undocumented immigrant named Francisco Sanchez.
GOP lawmakers, who are more prone to support a greater federal thumbprint on detention policy, have decried San Francisco leaders for acting irresponsibly. One of them, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), said he plans to introduce a bill penalizing cities that do not cooperate with ICE.
With the debate around immigration already red hot due to the charged rhetoric of the 2016 campaign, the incident in San Francisco could end up prompting a shift in recent trends in detention policy. For years, local communities have been limiting their collaboration with immigration enforcement officials, with more than 300 cities and counties adopting policies against fully complying with ICE's requests. Some, like San Francisco, barely deal with the agency at all, while others limit interactions except in cases of more serious crimes.
The widespread resistance led the Obama administration to announce in November that it would drop the Secure Communities program, which asked police to hold individuals for ICE so they could be picked up for deportation purposes.
The immediate fallout from the shooting in San Francisco appears to be a change in those particular political winds.
But the debate remains a sensitive one, with activists and even local officials warning that a greater federal role could harm other law enforcement activities, drain resources and spark court challenges.
At issue is whether local law enforcement, at the request of ICE, should -- or even legally could -- hold individuals who it otherwise would have released. Immigration advocates have warned that doing so creates fear in the undocumented community and sweeps up people for deportation because of low-level crimes or arrests they are never convicted for.
To accommodate those concerns, the administration is pushing a new policy called the Priority Enforcement Program, which was announced last November. Under PEP, according to the administration, ICE would target individuals at higher priority for deportation, such as convicted criminals. The program also will ask local law enforcement to notify the agency when it plans to release a suspected deportable immigrant, rather than for holds.
That program hasn't been rolled out nationwide, and an ICE official said their appeals to San Francisco officials to work with them haven't gone anywhere. But critics are charging that had ICE implemented PEP in San Francisco sooner, Sanchez, who said he shot Steinle last Wednesday before saying on Tuesday that he was not guilty, would not have been released into the community.
Francisco Sanchez enters court for an arraignment on July 7 in San Francisco. Francisco Sanchez pleaded not guilty to charges that he shot and killed 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle as she walked on Pier 14 in San Francisco with her father last week. (Photo by Michael Macor-Pool/Getty Images)
Prior to the shooting, Sanchez had been deported five times and had seven felony convictions, according to authorities. Twice, ICE put in detainer requests for him. The first was with the Bureau of Prisons, where he was serving a sentence for the federal crime of illegally re-entering the U.S. as a felon. Sanchez was transferred by the Bureau of Prisons to the San Francisco sheriff's office because he had an arrest warrant for a 20-year-old marijuana case. ICE then put in a request to the sheriff's office to detain him. After the district attorney declined to prosecute that charge, he was released in April.
Officials at the San Francisco County Sheriff's Office and ICE have since blamed each other for that release, with the local authorities saying ICE should have gotten a judicial warrant if they wanted Sanchez to be held, and ICE claiming it was never notified that the man was about to be let go.
With the debate expanding beyond the particulars of what happened and into the realm of public policy, critics of Secure Communities worry the tragedy in San Francisco will be used as a cudgel against cities that have tried to move their police departments out of the immigration enforcement business. They warn there are not just humanitarian and budget constraints to consider, but constitutional complications as well.
"I've seen this happen over and over again where anti-immigrant groups try to use these types of horrible cases to change policies but there are constitutional protections, and people cannot be held for immigration without a judge signing a warrant," said Angela Chan, a policy director at the Asian Law Caucus.
Police chiefs could be an ally in pushing back against greater federal involvement in local immigration matters. Many have contended that they need to strike a balance between acting as enforcement agents and performing their duties to protect the public. Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger, also the president of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, said doing too much of the former risks hurting the relationship law enforcement has with the broader community.
Montgomery County officials announced last year that immigrants would no longer be held for ICE without demonstration that the individual likely committed a crime. Manger approves of PEP and said his office notifies ICE when individuals are being released upon request. But the fact that individuals are released and go on to commit crime is a risk in all law enforcement, he insisted, and not just specific to immigration.
"I've been a cop for 38 years," he said. "And for longer than I've been a cop, [criminals] have been getting out of jail and doing bad things again. The fact is that the law allows you to hold someone for a certain amount of time and when the law says you've got to release them, you've got to release them."
Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton became the most high-profile Democrat to wade into the debate on Tuesday, telling CNN that San Francisco should have worked with agents at Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"The city made a mistake, not to deport someone that the federal government strongly felt should be deported," she said in an interview. "So I have absolutely no support for a city that ignores the strong evidence that should be acted on."
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), meanwhile, sent a letter on Tuesday to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee urging him to cooperate with ICE, implying the county's failure to do so allowed for the shooting of 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle, allegedly at the hands of a previously deported undocumented immigrant named Francisco Sanchez.
GOP lawmakers, who are more prone to support a greater federal thumbprint on detention policy, have decried San Francisco leaders for acting irresponsibly. One of them, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), said he plans to introduce a bill penalizing cities that do not cooperate with ICE.
With the debate around immigration already red hot due to the charged rhetoric of the 2016 campaign, the incident in San Francisco could end up prompting a shift in recent trends in detention policy. For years, local communities have been limiting their collaboration with immigration enforcement officials, with more than 300 cities and counties adopting policies against fully complying with ICE's requests. Some, like San Francisco, barely deal with the agency at all, while others limit interactions except in cases of more serious crimes.
The widespread resistance led the Obama administration to announce in November that it would drop the Secure Communities program, which asked police to hold individuals for ICE so they could be picked up for deportation purposes.
The immediate fallout from the shooting in San Francisco appears to be a change in those particular political winds.
But the debate remains a sensitive one, with activists and even local officials warning that a greater federal role could harm other law enforcement activities, drain resources and spark court challenges.
At issue is whether local law enforcement, at the request of ICE, should -- or even legally could -- hold individuals who it otherwise would have released. Immigration advocates have warned that doing so creates fear in the undocumented community and sweeps up people for deportation because of low-level crimes or arrests they are never convicted for.
To accommodate those concerns, the administration is pushing a new policy called the Priority Enforcement Program, which was announced last November. Under PEP, according to the administration, ICE would target individuals at higher priority for deportation, such as convicted criminals. The program also will ask local law enforcement to notify the agency when it plans to release a suspected deportable immigrant, rather than for holds.
That program hasn't been rolled out nationwide, and an ICE official said their appeals to San Francisco officials to work with them haven't gone anywhere. But critics are charging that had ICE implemented PEP in San Francisco sooner, Sanchez, who said he shot Steinle last Wednesday before saying on Tuesday that he was not guilty, would not have been released into the community.
Francisco Sanchez enters court for an arraignment on July 7 in San Francisco. Francisco Sanchez pleaded not guilty to charges that he shot and killed 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle as she walked on Pier 14 in San Francisco with her father last week. (Photo by Michael Macor-Pool/Getty Images)
Prior to the shooting, Sanchez had been deported five times and had seven felony convictions, according to authorities. Twice, ICE put in detainer requests for him. The first was with the Bureau of Prisons, where he was serving a sentence for the federal crime of illegally re-entering the U.S. as a felon. Sanchez was transferred by the Bureau of Prisons to the San Francisco sheriff's office because he had an arrest warrant for a 20-year-old marijuana case. ICE then put in a request to the sheriff's office to detain him. After the district attorney declined to prosecute that charge, he was released in April.
Officials at the San Francisco County Sheriff's Office and ICE have since blamed each other for that release, with the local authorities saying ICE should have gotten a judicial warrant if they wanted Sanchez to be held, and ICE claiming it was never notified that the man was about to be let go.
With the debate expanding beyond the particulars of what happened and into the realm of public policy, critics of Secure Communities worry the tragedy in San Francisco will be used as a cudgel against cities that have tried to move their police departments out of the immigration enforcement business. They warn there are not just humanitarian and budget constraints to consider, but constitutional complications as well.
"I've seen this happen over and over again where anti-immigrant groups try to use these types of horrible cases to change policies but there are constitutional protections, and people cannot be held for immigration without a judge signing a warrant," said Angela Chan, a policy director at the Asian Law Caucus.
Police chiefs could be an ally in pushing back against greater federal involvement in local immigration matters. Many have contended that they need to strike a balance between acting as enforcement agents and performing their duties to protect the public. Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger, also the president of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, said doing too much of the former risks hurting the relationship law enforcement has with the broader community.
Montgomery County officials announced last year that immigrants would no longer be held for ICE without demonstration that the individual likely committed a crime. Manger approves of PEP and said his office notifies ICE when individuals are being released upon request. But the fact that individuals are released and go on to commit crime is a risk in all law enforcement, he insisted, and not just specific to immigration.
"I've been a cop for 38 years," he said. "And for longer than I've been a cop, [criminals] have been getting out of jail and doing bad things again. The fact is that the law allows you to hold someone for a certain amount of time and when the law says you've got to release them, you've got to release them."
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Helmet-cam video from Virginia house fire
This is helmet-cam video showing interior and exterior at a house fire in Smithfield, Virginia Sunday night caused by a lightning strike.
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Fitz says Walker was involved in attempted ax of open records law
I’ll keep this brief. Here’s the headline: Scott Fitzgerald: Scott Walker’s office was involved with open records changes The most important thing to take away is that Fitz and the boys will make another effort to cut you and the world off from legislative records: “I think it’s something that there are many different entities more »
Iowa DOT Chief Says Overbuilt Road System Will Have to Shrink
Here’s something you don’t see every day. Or ever.
Charles Marohn at Strong Towns reports that the director of the Iowa DOT, Paul Trombino, said his state’s transportation system is overbuilt and unsustainable. Trombino said Iowans will have to decide what to maintain and what they are willing to let go.
State DOT director Paul Trombino says Iowa has excess and unsustainable road capacity. Photo: Streets.mn
Marohn quotes from Trombino’s remarks:
I said the numbers before. 114,000 lane miles, 25,000 bridges, 4,000 miles of rail. I said this a lot in my conversation when we were talking about fuel tax increases. It’s not affordable. Nobody’s going to pay.
We are. We’re the ones. Look in the mirror. We’re not going to pay to rebuild that entire system.
And my personal belief is that the entire system is unneeded. And so the reality is, the system is going to shrink.
There’s nothing I have to do. Bridges close themselves. Roads deteriorate and go away. That’s what happens.
And reality is, for us, let’s not let the system degrade and then we’re left with sorta whatever’s left. Let’s try to make a conscious choice — it’s not going to be perfect, I would agree it’s going to be complex and messy — but let’s figure out which ones we really want to keep.
And quite honestly, it’s not everything that we have, which means some changes.
“This is a big deal,” says Marohn. “Most DOT directors understand that we’ve overbuilt, that there will never be the money to maintain everything they are asked to maintain. I’ve not heard another DOT chief admit this problem publicly. They need to.”
Elsewhere on the Network today: Streets.mn examines how sprawl development cheapens land values, Mobilizing the Region reports on positive signs for transportation policy in Connecticut, and Biking Toronto celebrates news of a pending bike-share expansion.
Fire porn shooters draw fire in Detroit
The headline of the Deadline Detroit article by Alan Stamm reads, “Detroit Fire Porn Tourists Ignite Irritation.” Back-to-back posts on the Detroit Firehouse Facebook page say, “Getting reports of Photographers blowing red lights for fires” and “Please stay out of the fire companies (sic) way.” One fire photographer early Sunday tweeted that some people are getting suspicious of buffs — “Firefighter in SW Detroit just confronted me and other photographers saying that we are the problem and buffs are starting the fires.”
Fire buffs who attended the historically busy July 4th holiday in Detroit are having an image problem. Stamm’s article cites a number of tweets showing buffs posing in front of fires and talking about being a “good morning” because there were fires. The article begins this way:
The traveling hunters shoot with cameras and capture trophies that show fiery destruction. Detroit is a destination, particularly on and around July 4 — a dramatically busy time for the city’s hard-pressed fire department.
Participants call it “buffing,” though some prefer the descriptions photojournalist or freelance photographer to disassociate themselves from fire buffs who don’t sell photos. Their websites are aglow with red, orange and smoky images, which are offered to Firehouse Magazine, Fire Engineering, Fire Service News and 1st Responder News.
Read entire article by Alan Stamm
As a fire porn purveyor or end user (not mentioned in the article) it would be easy to be defensive and fire back at anyone criticizing people exercising the First Amendment rights that protect such photography. But if what is being written really bothers you, it’s probably a lot smarter to first look inward and ask yourself some questions. Are you being a good guest? Are you representing your hobby or career well? Are you writing things about someone else’s tragedy or unfortunate situation that shows little concern for the victims?
Also, before you get upset about what has been written remember this: The same freedoms being celebrated over the weekend that allow us to take pictures and video of firefighters in action also lets some of the locals call us a bunch of jerks.
Arrival video: Cop responds well to air-horn at house fire
Arrival video from BFES & BPS Videos taken at a fire Wednesday that damaged two homes on Rosser Avenue in Brandon, Manitoba. The best part about this video is the hustle from the police officer at :40 after the air horn alerts to the ladder truck barreling toward her car blocking the road. News coverage of the fire here.
Greece Is Just The Beginning Of The Great Austerity Backlash
WASHINGTON -- The global politics of austerity seeped into the press room of the White House on Monday, the day after the Greeks voted overwhelmingly to reject a harsh bailout deal with Europe.
Reporters pressed Josh Earnest, President Barack Obama’s spokesman, for details of what his boss thought of the vote and of the bailout deal, and whether he agreed with 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders that the latter was outrageous. Earnest answered with streams of polite words that added up to ... nothing. Obama was staying out of the issue, as he apparently had promised German Chancellor Angela Merkel he would when they met at the G-7 summit recently.
Obama favors “a package of relief and reform,” was all Earnest would say.
Nevertheless, the exchange with reporters in Washington was another of the many signs that the debate over the power that should accrue to money -- and what those who wield it can fairly demand -- is spreading around the world.
It’s a new echo on a global scale of the politics of a much earlier, but in some ways remarkably similar, era in the U.S. As the U.S. became a continental economy in the late 19th century, with vast new hordes of wealth built in railroads, coal, electricity and communications, a political backlash arose. The new “money power” was judged too big and uncontrollable: an engine not of prosperity, but of inequality and corruption. The backlash launched America's Progressive movement, which among other reforms pushed laws to rein in the power of big corporations in the interests of ordinary people.
Now that the planet’s economies have essentially become one, and the world’s top dozen banks control $30 trillion in assets, the callous demands of a new and even larger “money power” is starting to spark a worldwide backlash.
Even the ever-cautious Obama has alluded to it. This past winter, he defended Greece, saying that “you can’t keep squeezing countries that are in the midst of depression” to pay off debt and warning that "eventually the political system, the society can’t sustain it.”
Around the same time, he sent the U.S. Congress a budget proposal with many new spending plans, declaring that it was time to end the “mindless austerity” of his Republican foes. They responded by proposing their stingiest budget plan in years.
This fall, Obama will again be battling the Republican Party over cutting spending to reduce debt -- even as he declines to get involved in the more intense version of the same debate going on in Europe.
Europe, meanwhile, is likely to see the Greek anti-austerity sentiment spread -- in the first instance to Portugal and Spain, which have national elections this fall and winter, respectively. Governments in both countries are responding to heavy borrowing and debt with controversial austerity measures sure to be at issue with the voters. French and Italian national elections are much further away, but the leftist parties in each nation have been invigorated by the fight in Athens. Representatives of parties and movements in all four countries were on the scene in Greece this week, cheering on the Syriza party and trying to learn from its victories and mistakes.
The leftists face long odds despite growing evidence that what British economist John Maynard Keynes warned during the Great Depression (and what Obama said this winter) remains true: You can’t “squeeze” a country into prosperity. Just the opposite, in fact.
This was something the founders of the International Monetary Fund understood. Their original aim was to provide guidance to national governments in economic distress but also to feed in more money where needed, not cut it back. Today the IMF has become something akin to a collection agency, insisting on harsh measures that guarantee the repayment of loans made to vulnerable countries by private global banks.
Something has to change, as the Greeks declared with their vote this weekend.
Reporters pressed Josh Earnest, President Barack Obama’s spokesman, for details of what his boss thought of the vote and of the bailout deal, and whether he agreed with 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders that the latter was outrageous. Earnest answered with streams of polite words that added up to ... nothing. Obama was staying out of the issue, as he apparently had promised German Chancellor Angela Merkel he would when they met at the G-7 summit recently.
Obama favors “a package of relief and reform,” was all Earnest would say.
Nevertheless, the exchange with reporters in Washington was another of the many signs that the debate over the power that should accrue to money -- and what those who wield it can fairly demand -- is spreading around the world.
It’s a new echo on a global scale of the politics of a much earlier, but in some ways remarkably similar, era in the U.S. As the U.S. became a continental economy in the late 19th century, with vast new hordes of wealth built in railroads, coal, electricity and communications, a political backlash arose. The new “money power” was judged too big and uncontrollable: an engine not of prosperity, but of inequality and corruption. The backlash launched America's Progressive movement, which among other reforms pushed laws to rein in the power of big corporations in the interests of ordinary people.
Now that the planet’s economies have essentially become one, and the world’s top dozen banks control $30 trillion in assets, the callous demands of a new and even larger “money power” is starting to spark a worldwide backlash.
Even the ever-cautious Obama has alluded to it. This past winter, he defended Greece, saying that “you can’t keep squeezing countries that are in the midst of depression” to pay off debt and warning that "eventually the political system, the society can’t sustain it.”
Around the same time, he sent the U.S. Congress a budget proposal with many new spending plans, declaring that it was time to end the “mindless austerity” of his Republican foes. They responded by proposing their stingiest budget plan in years.
This fall, Obama will again be battling the Republican Party over cutting spending to reduce debt -- even as he declines to get involved in the more intense version of the same debate going on in Europe.
Europe, meanwhile, is likely to see the Greek anti-austerity sentiment spread -- in the first instance to Portugal and Spain, which have national elections this fall and winter, respectively. Governments in both countries are responding to heavy borrowing and debt with controversial austerity measures sure to be at issue with the voters. French and Italian national elections are much further away, but the leftist parties in each nation have been invigorated by the fight in Athens. Representatives of parties and movements in all four countries were on the scene in Greece this week, cheering on the Syriza party and trying to learn from its victories and mistakes.
The leftists face long odds despite growing evidence that what British economist John Maynard Keynes warned during the Great Depression (and what Obama said this winter) remains true: You can’t “squeeze” a country into prosperity. Just the opposite, in fact.
This was something the founders of the International Monetary Fund understood. Their original aim was to provide guidance to national governments in economic distress but also to feed in more money where needed, not cut it back. Today the IMF has become something akin to a collection agency, insisting on harsh measures that guarantee the repayment of loans made to vulnerable countries by private global banks.
Something has to change, as the Greeks declared with their vote this weekend.
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Surveillance video shows inside of PA firehouse as it burns
video has been released showing some inside views of the Father’s Day fire that heavily damaged the Robinson Township Volunteer Fire Company No. 1 on Hayes Avenue in Groveton, Pennsylvania.
The blaze at the Robinson Township Volunteer Fire Company No. 1 sent smoke pouring into the garage after an ATV caught fire.
A fire truck was in the garage at the time. It was saved when a firefighter rushed into the burning building and drove it out through a closed garage door.
Other vehicles inside the garage included an air rescue truck, a squad truck and a rescue boat.
CLICK HERE to make a donation to Robinson Township VFC No. 1.
Monday, July 6, 2015
I have to ask: Are the Old Boys down at M.J.Sentinel shitting their pants right now?
Plenty of facebook commenters and at least two bloggers have proposed that the JFC’s attack on WI open records law is actually a set-up to eventually make Walker look the hero. As in, they think that the “dirty dozen” on the Joint Finance Committee conspired to nuke open records law with the budget add-on called more »
Why it Matters that the Service Sector Expansion is Slowing
Following on last week’s lackluster June jobs report, Monday’s read on the service sector also came in a bit weaker than expected. The Institute for Supply Management’s report was slightly better than May, but not by much. Thomas Simons of Jefferies notes that 85% of the U.S. labor force is in the service sector, so [...]
Firefighter suspended for flying Confederate flag on fire engine during holiday parade
A Minnesota volunteer firefighter says he’s been suspended for flying a confederate flag from an engine during a holiday parade, and that he expects to be asked to resign.
Brian Nielsen drove a Hartland Fire Department truck in the Third of July Parade in the southern Minnesota city of Albert Lea. He flew both the Confederate and American flags from the back – a move that’s drawn community and social media criticism.
Nielsen, who’s been with the department for about 10 years, flew both the Confederate and American flags from the back of the truck. He said neither his town nor his department had anything to do with it.
Nielsen said he’s not for slavery, but did it because he was fed up with political correctness.
“It was my decision and I didn’t think it was going to be a big deal, but boy was I wrong,” Nielsen told The Associated Press.
Hartland, MN Volunteer Fire Dept major fail in Albert Lea Independence Day parade July 3. #ConfederateFlag #wrongside http://t.co/ajGtrvsKX1
— Dale Moerke (@demoerke) July 4, 2015
Nielsen says he may attend this week’s Albert Lea chamber of commerce meeting to make a formal apology.
Randy Kehr, the chamber’s executive director, called the incident unfortunate, but said he understands that Nielsen, who alone chose to fly the Confederate flag next to the Stars and Stripes, has freedom of speech.
Nielsen says he’s not for slavery or a racist, but feels political correctness is effectively changing the country’s history.
Sarah Stultz, Albert Lea Tribune:
Nielsen said he wasn’t looking to get a lot of attention from his decision to fly the flag, and he didn’t think it would spur as much discussion as it has. He, himself, has a family member who is black, he said.
Nielsen said he talked with a few of the other firefighters on the department, and they supported him standing up for his rights.
Horrible Tour De France Crash Brings Down 20 Riders, Briefly Stops Race
Joaquim Rodriguez was among the few cyclists having a good day during Monday's Stage Three of the Tour de France.
The Spanish cyclist emerged the day's winner during the 159.5 kilometer stage (about 100 miles) that stretches between the Belgian cities of Anvers and Huy.
Joaquim Rodriguez of Spain and Team Katusha celebrates winning stage three of the 2015 Tour de France, a 154km stage between Antwerp and Huy, on July 5 in Antwerp, Belgium. (Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)
But earlier in the day, a massive crash brought down 20 riders, including race leader Fabian Cancellara. Cancellara leapt into the air with his bike still attached to him before hitting the grass and somersaulting.
Scores of riders lie on the road after crashing during the third stage of the Tour de France on Monday. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
In addition to the heartbreak of ceding the yellow jersey after the hard fall, tests revealed Cancellara had fractured his spine, forcing him to withdraw from the race entirely.
Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland riding for Trek Factory Racing in the overall race leader yellow jersey is attended to after being involved in a crash with 65 km remaining in stage three of the 2015 Tour de France. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)
Frenchman William Bonnet crashed with less than 37 miles left in the stage, and other riders around him soon tumbled. Bonnet was carried away on a stretcher and wearing a cervical neck brace. Three other racers in addition to Cancellara and Bonnet withdrew from the race following the crash.
William Bonnet of France holds his head after crashing with scores of other riders during the third stage of the Tour de France. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
The crash first prompted officials to neutralize the peloton -- effectively have racers slow and hold their relative positions -- before they stopped it altogether for about 20 minutes, according to ESPN.
Daryl Impey of South Africa riding for Orica-GreenEdge; William Bonnet of France riding for FDJ; Simon Gerrans of Australia riding for Orica-GreenEdge; Jose Mendes of Portugal riding for Bora-Argon 18; Greg Henderson of New Zealand riding for Lotto Soudal; and Ramon Sinkeldam of the Netherlands riding for Giant-Alpecin lay on the ground after being involved in a crash in stage three of the 2015 Tour de France. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)
England's Chris Froome, now the overall race leader, will don the yellow jersey for Stage Four on Tuesday.
"It's an amazing feeling to be in the yellow jersey," Froome told the BBC. "I wouldn't say its too early to take the yellow jersey. I'd definitely rather be in this position than having to make time up on my rivals."
Chris Froome of Great Britain riding for Team Sky leads the race ahead of Alberto Contador (L) of Spain riding for Tinkoff-Saxo and Tejay van Garderen (L) of the United States riding for BMC Racing Team. Froome finished second on the stage and earned the overall race leaders yellow jersey. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)
The Spanish cyclist emerged the day's winner during the 159.5 kilometer stage (about 100 miles) that stretches between the Belgian cities of Anvers and Huy.
But earlier in the day, a massive crash brought down 20 riders, including race leader Fabian Cancellara. Cancellara leapt into the air with his bike still attached to him before hitting the grass and somersaulting.
In addition to the heartbreak of ceding the yellow jersey after the hard fall, tests revealed Cancellara had fractured his spine, forcing him to withdraw from the race entirely.
Frenchman William Bonnet crashed with less than 37 miles left in the stage, and other riders around him soon tumbled. Bonnet was carried away on a stretcher and wearing a cervical neck brace. Three other racers in addition to Cancellara and Bonnet withdrew from the race following the crash.
The crash first prompted officials to neutralize the peloton -- effectively have racers slow and hold their relative positions -- before they stopped it altogether for about 20 minutes, according to ESPN.
England's Chris Froome, now the overall race leader, will don the yellow jersey for Stage Four on Tuesday.
"It's an amazing feeling to be in the yellow jersey," Froome told the BBC. "I wouldn't say its too early to take the yellow jersey. I'd definitely rather be in this position than having to make time up on my rivals."
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